To cut a long story short Sue's dad had been given 6 months last July as he had cancer that had spread to his liver, and last Thursday morning he died after a very short but abrupt decline. That meant we headed down to Northamptonshire Thursday am and spent a strange few days there, coming back on Sunday evening. This Wednesday evening we'll be heading down again and coming back Sunday evening once more.
How has this affected my preparations for Paris?
Well, the diet really hasn't been good. With little food in the house we had to make regular trips to the mini-market, eat out twice, had no access to the Internet to log anything and felt little compulsion to do anything other than comfort eat anyway. Back to square one there and realistically 11st 7lb is about the best I can hope for ahead of Paris.
Running wise it was also challenging but I did better.
I'd skipped Wednesday's run after the Tuesday difficulties, and just did 30 minutes on the cross trainer on Thursday am while Sue got her things together to go to her mothers. On Friday I did just over 10 miles, with the middle 6.5 miles at 7.25, half marathon tempo pace.
Problem was we had planned to come back on Saturday so I hadn't taken the Garmin charger, trail shoes, limited clothes, no water bottle/belt. That made Sunday's run more challenging. The plan called for 12 miles with the middle 8 at marathon pace. I upped this a little, part choice, part accident of the route, so that I did 13.62 with 9 miles at marathon pace:
- 7:47
- 8.02
- 7.54
- 7.57
- 7.56
- 7.52
- 7.50
- 7.39
- 7.41
Quite pleased, as it felt fairly easy to run at that pace for a longer period. Strangely, it was only in the 2.6 miles cool down (9.00 mile pace) that my legs felt tired/awkward/sore. I wonder why?
This week sees 9 miles steady today, 6.5 miles intervals tomorrow, maybe 2 mile jog on Thursday (as no gym access), 10.5 miles tempo on Friday and 22 miles on Sunday.
Hope to get the diet back on track but being away again could be difficult. Just have to do what I can.
Will try to catch up on other blogs over the next few days!
6 comments:
I'm sorry to hear about Sue's dad. Hopefully the rapid decline meant he didn't suffer too much in the end..
I think given that you're comfortably running at MP at your current weight, there is less imperative to lose at this point than there otherwise would be. I know you want to get the weight off regardless of running goals, but perhaps that's a project for after Paris now. I think staying fit and healthy in these later stages is more important, that and taking the pressure off yourself. With the funeral and a 22 miler coming up, you're already under rather a lot of stress. I say cut yourself a bit of slack worrying about the food at this point
I'm so sorry about Sue's father. I hope she's coping with it okay and, like Alison said, that he didn't suffer too badly.
Given those circumstances, I think you're being horribly hard on yourself. I thought from your preamble that you were going to say you hadn't run at all (which would be entirely understandable!!!) but to keep up that kind of mileage at such great pace/speed under an immense amount of stress is incredible. A funeral and a 22 mile run in the future mean that you've got so much to deal with, and if you'll pardon my French I would say bollocks to the weight loss right now. You're not even 'comfort eating' in my opinion: I think your body is tired, depleted and probably needs the extra food to cope.
Perhaps splitting the weight goals from the marathon ones might help in the long term? There's plenty of time after the marathon to lose weight, and having both goals to deal with sounds like it's putting undue pressure on you. You've got nothing to prove with your weight and honestly I don't think those few extra lbs are going to impact severely on your time, no matter what online articles might say.
Please try to cut yourself some slack to get through this difficult time.
All my best to Sue and all, devastating to loose someone dear. And as the others have mentioned, don't add unnecessary stress to your life at the moment.
Hi Rob,
Sorry to hear about the loss in your family, all my best to you, Sue and your family.
I think you're doing really well with keeping up much of your training at a time like this and think Jessica has given some damn good advice. Stop being so hard on yourself.
All the best to you all x
Sorry to hear that Rob- I hope you are all coping ok.
I am impressed that you managed to do any running, and as Alison says, perhaps focus on training for Paris, and then after that focus on losing weight.
Sorry to hear your bad news. I hope you're both coping ok.
Well done on getting a great run in despite far less than ideal circumstances
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